Chooks in the garden.

I was going to write about worm-sex, but I don't want to get myself wedged into a blogging niche that might seem unsavory. It was really cool though. Saturday night we had a long sustained rain....not too heavy, but just right. I went out with a flashlight to lock the chickens in for the night and there were worms everywhere! In the garden, there were worms extending over a foot from their holes and then meeting up with other worms similarly stretched. And they were touching and where they were touching was all gooey and gross and it was happening ALL OVER MY GARDEN! I totally watched for like 20 minutes.

Click here to read more about the howzits and whatzits of earthworm reproduction.

Saturday I went to the Landis Valley Museum for the Herb and Garden Faire. A lot of my favorite vendors weren't there, but I still came home with some very cool plants. I bought Borage, several tomatoes (Olivette, Roughwood {a stable cross of Yellow Brandywine and San Marzano}, and Black Ruffles {a cross of Black Krim and Zapotec Pink Pleated}), a few peppers (Hinkelhatz {or chicken heart} pepper, a Relleno, and Amish pimiento) to go with my already burgeoning collection of tomatoes and peppers. I always buy way too many cause there are so many interesting varieties. I can't help myself.

But the thing I was most excited about buying at the Herb and Garden Faire was........RAMPS! I've never seen them being sold before! I've never even tried one but I snatched one up. It is apparently an Appalachian thing, as last year when I went to West Virginia, I saw many signs for Ramp Festivals. At first I thought it had something to do with the Interstate, but a ramp is actually a sort of onion, sort of garlic type thing that is wildly popular in the southern mountain states and mostly harvested from the wild. Allium tricoccum is really a wild leek that grows in wooded areas of higher elevations (supposedly 3,000 ft). I'm not at a high elevation, but I have a wooded area with a low pH (something else they like) and am willing to give it a try. How fun!

And in other news, I should have listened to Liz in the comments about the asparagus catastrophe. Asparagus does have deep roots. And I should have waited to see how much of what my husband tilled would come back before running and planting more asparagus. Because about 75% of what was tilled came back. But only after I planted 25 new crowns. So now I have 60 asparagus plants. And I am the only one in this house that eats it. That is a lot of asparagus.